Jesuit Scientific Instruments Introduced to China

Timeline

1. c. 1631–1635Macau · MacauGalilean telescopes, celestial globes, and geometric drawing tools largely arrived in Macau aboard Portuguese merchant ships, then were carried inland by Jesuits as core materials for missionary and calendrical demonstrations.
2. 1635Nanjing · NanjingIn the 1630s missionaries such as Johann Adam Schall von Bell and Johann Terrenz used instruments to demonstrate lunar eclipses and star-table calculations in Nanjing, Hangzhou, and elsewhere, and collaborated with scholars of Xu Guangqi's circle to translate Euclidean geometry and manuals on the use of astronomical instruments.
3. c. 1638–1640Beijing · BeijingAmid late-Ming calendrical controversies, European instruments became the technical basis for reform of the Astronomical Bureau; in the late 1630s some instruments remained in the capital, laying the equipment and methodological foundation for Schall von Bell's leadership of the Astronomical Bureau in the early Qing.